Many people enjoy activities that take them into the outdoors, to sporting events, hiking paths, and other places where they do not have ready access to bathroom facilities. For example, it is common for golf courses to have just a couple of bathroom facilities, typically far apart on the course, located such that a golfer might play an hour or more without access to a bathroom. Similarly, many public walking paths and parks do not have adequate bathroom facilities, if they have any such facilities at all. When they do have bathrooms, the number is often too few to meet the demand or they are not located in all areas of the park or trail. Also, hygiene is often a problem, particularly when the bathroom facilities are not frequently cleaned. This is a particular problem with portable toilet facilities set up for seasonal use and for large events, such as concerts and fairs.
In addition to recreational activities, many occupations are inherently challenging from the standpoint of bathroom facilities. This is true with many traveling occupations, such as bus drivers who must keep a regular schedule of stops, and truck drivers who get paid based upon miles driven. Neither of these occupations (for example) allow frequent stops for bathroom breaks or for unscheduled bathroom breaks. Construction workers have similar problems, as do sales staff in small businesses that have only one person staffing a store. Such stores often have to close for a few minutes when their attendant needs to take a break to use a bathroom. Also, some such stores do not even have their own bathrooms, so the attendant has to go off site to find a suitable bathroom to use.
Under these circumstances, whether they are recreational or occupational, people often solve the problem of bathroom access with one of two approaches: either they carefully choose their activities to avoid needing a bathroom in an inaccessible location, or they try to find a private, but generally unapproved, location to relieve themselves. In the first case, people may avoid golfing, hiking, walking, or other sporting and recreational pursuits if they believe they will be unable to have access to bathroom facilities. In the second case, people will either discretely seek to find a private wooded location to use as a bathroom, or in rare instances be less discrete in using public or private property to relieve themselves.
The problems of inadequate access to bathroom facilities are certainly a considerable problem for many people who have recreational pursuits or occupations that take them away from bathrooms. However, the problem is even more severe for people who have medical conditions that necessitate that they use a bathroom more frequently to urinate than normal individuals. For example, people with diabetes sometimes have increased needs to use a bathroom, as do people with small bladders. For these individuals, the lack of ready access to adequate bathrooms can be a tremendous problem. An aging population makes this problem ever more common.
Thus, a need exists for a solution to the problem of inadequate bathroom access for people in remote locations, with occupations that limit access to bathrooms, and for individuals who have a need for more frequent access to a bathroom.